A new, free mobile app aims to help reduce the impact of food waste. The numbers on food waste are staggering: The EPA cites that more than 33 million tons of edible food end up in U.S. landfills each year; and nearly half of the food produced in the world—some 2 billion tons every year—goes uneaten.

If you haven’t yet considered the implications of food waste, it’s worth pondering the next time a once fresh piece of fruit rots in your fridge. Or, take a look at a yogurt container or a peanut butter jar considered empty…how much food is left in there?

By design, much of our packaged food leads to waste that can’t be avoided without significant dexterity. But overshopping—a Western problem if there ever was one—and major imbalances in food distribution make food waste a growing global problem that’s proving incredibly difficult to get under control.

The Love Food Hate Waste campaign has launched an app to help consumers do their part in reducing their own food waste at home. (Every little bit helps.) The app can send users reminders about what’s in their refrigerators, what the use-by dates are and even help thwart duplicating ingredients for planned meals when shopping. The app can also help you budget for portion sizes in order to make less food at a time, decreasing the risk of waste.

Got some potatoes or lettuce about to go bad? The app also provides you recipe ideas so you can use your near-expiry foods before they become inedible.

LFHW’s Emma Marsh said, “Wasting less food is not only good for our pockets, but it’s also good for the environment, helping to save energy and water, and reducing our carbon footprint,” she added. “By making all this information available via the new free app, we want to make it even easier for people to get the most from the food they buy.”

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About Author

Jill Ettinger is the senior editor and featured columnist on EcoSalon and sister website Organic Authority. She is also the site co-director at Eat Drink Better. Jill is the director of social media for EcoSalon and Organic Authority.
Jill’s writing has been featured in The Village Voice, MTV, Reality Sandwich and Global Rhythm as well as the anthologies “Towards 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age” (2009, Tarcher/Penguin) and “What Do You Believe?” (2009, Outside the Box).
A focus on food policy, veganism, wellness, music and world cultural expressions, Jill blends the mystical and modern as she explores what our shifting food, fashion, culture and creative landscapes will look, sound and taste like in the future.
Jill spent more than a decade as a sales and marketing manager in the natural foods industry and regularly consults with and supports emerging brands and organizations in creative communication, social media and event production.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and future foodie, their daughter Imogene. Twitter @jillettinger | www.jillettinger.com.